Atac reaches new high on latest Yukon gold hits

Vancouver – New infill drill results from the Tiger zone of Atac Resources’ (ATC-V) Rau gold project have boosted the company’s stock to an all-time high only days after somewhat disappointing results from the project’s East zone.

The latest results from the oxide portion of the Tiger zone show several high-grade intercepts of significant lengths. Atac intended the drilling to both shore up widely spaced areas and to test interpreted extensions of the mineralization downdip and along strike to the northwest.

The drilling is part of an 18,000-metre, $12.5 million exploration program on Atac’s wholly-owned gold project in the Yukon’s Keno Hill mining district. The Tiger zone has so far been delineated over a 650-metre-long and 100 to 200-metre-wide area with an average thickness of 40 metres.

On the northwest edge of drilling, hole 92 cut 7 metres averaging 1.04 grams gold per tonne, while hole 78 did not hit oxide and hole 84 had to be abandoned. Moving southeast, holes 72 and 74 did not hit significant mineralization while nearby hole 79 cut 19.4 metres averaging 5.29 grams gold from 84 metres.

Further southeast, hole 90 cut 38.8 metres grading 17.11 grams gold from 33 metres, including 10.7 metres averaging 51.68 grams gold, and hole 88 returned 58.9 metres carrying 8.7 grams gold from 31 metres, including 18.3 metres grading 25.77 grams gold.

Closer to the centre of the zone, hole 85 cut 6.1 metres grading 1.87 grams gold from 58 metres depth, hole 86 hit 4.6 metres averaging 1.67 grams gold from 6 metres, and hole 82 cut 21.3 metres carrying 2.22 grams gold also from 6 metres depth.

The company used larger diameter core for the latest drilling. Atac reports the larger core could account for some of the higher-grade intercepts since it improves recovery in highly fractured and faulted zones with better grades. The company is now deciding whether to test other areas of the oxide zone with larger core.

Meanwhile on the less explored East zone, five of the eight holes drilled this summer did not intersect significant mineralization. Of those the company did report, hole 73 cut 23.2 metres averaging 2.54 grams gold from 182 metres and hole 87 hit 16.2 metres grading 2.16 grams gold from 279 metres depth.

While drilling the East zone, the company discovered a new stratabound layer of gold sulphide mineralization in five of eight holes in what it now calls the Upper Tiger Zone. Hole 77 cut 4.9 metres grading 3.83 grams gold, hole 83 hit 6.2 metres carrying 4.34 grams gold and hole 87 hit 7.6 metres averaging 4.94 grams gold, with all hits starting from between 105 and 120 metres depth.

Elsewhere on Rau, Atac has started diamond drilling on the recently-discovered Osiris target, mobilized a drill rig to the Cheetah target 5 km northwest of the Tiger zone and continues to test several targets along the Tiger zone trend. Since expanding the property this year, Atac’s Rau project spans over 1300 sq. km.

The company is currently filling its exploration coffers with a $20 million non-brokered private placement it expects to close very shortly. Atac plans to issue up to 8 million shares at $1.85 and up to 2.4 million flow-through shares at $2.15. Currently the company has 78.5 million shares outstanding.

Atac’s share price dropped 18¢ or 9% on the day the East zone results came out, but jumped back up 25¢ or 13.9% two days later to an all-time closing high of $2.05 on the latest news.